China Sex & Gender
Silence! The Xianzi Versus Zhu Jun Court Case Has Begun
On December 2nd, 13:30 Beijing time, a landmark court case commenced in Beijing’s Haidian district court, namely that of Xianzi versus Zhu Jun, the famous 56-year-old TV host and actor.
Xianzi (弦子) is a nickname for Zhou Xiaoxuan, a 27-year-old scriptwriter from Beijing who published a personal essay on social media in 2018 in which she accused Zhou Jun of sexually assaulting her while she was interning at CCTV for the Art Life (艺术人生) TV show in 2014. On Weibo, she is active under the name of ‘Xianzi and her Friends’ (@弦子与她的朋友们 over 271,000 followers).
Xianzi accuses Zhu of forcibly kissing and groping her in his dressing room, where she had come to interview him on June 10th, 2014. She had managed to escape the situation when another person entered the room. As previously reported by New York Times, Xianzi ran to the police after the incident had occurred. They reportedly urged her to drop the complaints.
For years, Xianzi stayed silent on the case, until that day in July 2018 when the American ‘Metoo’ campaign was in full swing and Xianzi spotted a friend’s story of experiencing sexual assault. Xianzi then posted her own story online, and it went viral.
The person she accuses of sexual intimidation, Zhu Jun, is a household name in China. In his teenage years, Zhu joined the People’s Liberation Army where he also joined the Military Band. He later started a career as a professional actor and became a familiar face on the Chinese state media outlet CCTV in 1993. He frequently appeared as a host for the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala, the most-watched live broadcasted program in China.
Zhu Jun’s portrait photo on Baidu’s Baike.
After Xianzi’s story gained widespread attention, Zhu Jun did not only deny all accusations, he also proceeded to sue Xianzi for damaging his reputation and for inflicting emotional distress, demanding a compensation of 655,000 yuan ($99,800). In October 2018, Xianzi filed a sexual misconduct lawsuit against the TV host and is asking for a public apology as well as 50,000 yuan ($7600) in damages.
As the court case was ongoing on Tuesday afternoon, Weibo feeds were filling up with people showing their support for Xianzi, even though the hashtag page for “Go Xianxi” (#弦子加油#) was taken offline.
Information about the court hearing is spread on Chinese social media.
Photos that quickly spread on Weibo showed dozens of supporters of Xianzi standing outside the court demanding justice. Some were holding posters showing the “Me Too” hashtag. Photos of Xianzi standing outside the court before entering also made their rounds.
Xianzi holding a sign saying “we will prevail”
Many people on Weibo are eager to hear the outcome of the case and complain about the lack of coverage of this news in Chinese media. This week, official Chinese news channels have stayed silent on the topic.
People are also complaining about the apparent online censorship of hashtags and comments relating to the case: “When I checked at 3 pm this afternoon, I saw plenty of Weibo posts relating to this hashtag. Now they’re all gone.”
“All content relating to the Zhu Jun sexual harassment case is gone from Douban,” one commenter said, referring to another popular Chinese social media platform: “I’m puzzled.”
Some commenters also claimed that images, such as the one pictured above, were being taken offline. At the time of writing, one of the few hashtag pages that was still open and being used to discuss this topic (#弦子诉朱军性骚扰案今天开庭#) also seems to have been deleted.
Even a hashtag that was previously used by state-run news site The Observer (#弦子诉朱军性骚扰案将于12月2日开庭#) has by now been taken offline.
While waiting for more news to come out, some creative expressions of support are also coming out on Weibo, including drawings and edited photos.
Meanwhile, videos circulating online show how food and warm drinks were delivered to the ‘Friends of Xianzi’ waiting in the dark in front of the courthouse.
Update Dec 3, 0.15 Beijing Time
Footage of Xianzi leaving the courthouse was shared on social media on late Tuesday night, with her thanking all her supporters who have been waiting outside in the cold all day.
Xianzi came out addressing the crowd waiting outside pic.twitter.com/agjKysBxso
— Bo An (@bo__an) December 2, 2020
For now, the latest news is that the trial is being adjourned.
We will update when more news comes out.
By Manya Koetse
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China Sex & Gender
17-Year-Old High School Student in Guangdong ‘Marries’ a 14-Year-Old Girl
Their family says they did not know the marriage was not legal.
The Guangdong wedding of a 17-year-old high school student and a 14-year-old junior high school student went trending on Chinese social media on Monday. On Weibo alone, the topic received over 470 million views on November 30.
The controversial wedding took place in the town of Guiyu (贵屿镇) on November 28. A short video of the couple having a ‘wedding reception’ dinner together has spread on various social media channels.
In light of the commotion over the young married couple, Shantou’s Chaoyang district, in which Guiyu is located, publicly responded to the issue. According to official sources cited in the media, the parents of the children have a “weak understanding of the legal system.” Both sides agreed to the marriage, but did not officially apply for marriage registration. The marriage ceremony was done according to local rural customs.
China globally is among the countries with the highest minimum age for marriage: 22 for men and 20 for women. Recent proposals to lower the marriage age in China have always triggered controversy on social media (here, here).
By now, local authorities have intervened and ordered the young ‘bride’ to return to her own family, stating that her mother and father must fulfill their parental duties. They also advised the children to go back to school.
On Weibo, many people denounce the children’s parents and say that having a “weak notion of the law” is not a sufficient explanation in this case, saying it is a violation of the law.
Others expressed concern that such marriages still occur in present-day China. “Your mind and body have not even been fully developed yet at the age of 14, how can they let her marry?” “They’re still kids!”
According to the latest reports, family members of the ‘newlyweds’ spoke to reporters, saying the boy and the girl, who is from a neighboring village, had met online and wanted to get married themselves. They had dropped out of school before their wedding.
The boy’s family speaking to Pear Video reporters.
The grandfather and grandmother on the boy’s side helped with the wedding preparations. In a recorded interview, the boy’s grandmother tearfully says: “We didn’t know it was against the law. We’re both old, and we didn’t know.”
A tearful grandmother states she did not know the underage marriage was against the law.
The family also declares that the girl has since been sent back to her parents and will continue to go to school.
By Manya Koetse
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China Insight
Shandong Woman Dies after Suffering Abuse by In-Laws over Infertility
Anger over Shandong abuse case: “Is this how the law protects women?!”
Just a month after the tragic story of a Chinese vlogger being killed by her husband triggered outrage on social media, another extreme domestic abuse case has gone trending on Weibo.
This time, it concerns the story of the 22-year-old woman named Fang Yangyang (方洋洋) who lived in Fangzhuang village in Dezhou, Shandong Province. The woman passed away in 2019 after suffering prolonged abuse by her husband and in-laws. Chinese media report that the abuse was related to Fang’s infertility issues.
Fang married her husband Zhang Bing (张丙) in November of 2016. It was an arranged marriage, with Zhang’s parents paying a bride price of 130,000 yuan (almost $20,000).
When Fang did not get pregnant after marrying her husband, she started suffering severe emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her husband and in-laws, beginning in July of 2018. Zhang and his parents reportedly beat Fang with wooden rods, refused to let her eat, locked her up, and let her freeze outside in the cold.
The in-law’s house on November 17, photo by Beijing News / Qiao Chi
Fang, who weighed 180 pounds (80 kilograms) when she got married, only weighed 60 pounds (30 kilograms) in early 2019. Beijing News reports that Fang, malnourished and weak, died on January 31st 2019 after suffering another beating by her in-laws.
The case received more attention on social media this week as the local Yucheng People’s Court (山东禹城法院) reviewed the case after an earlier verdict in January. The retrial is set to take place on November 27.
In January 2020, the court sentenced Fang’s husband and his parents for the crime of abuse. The victim’s father-in-law, Zhang Jilin (张吉林), received three years in prison, her mother-in-law, Liu Lanying (刘兰英), got 26 months in prison, and her husband’s sentence was suspended with a three-year probation time, as reported by Sixth Tone and China Daily.
The relatively light punishments triggered anger on Weibo, where the hashtag “Woman Suffers Abuse by In-Laws for Being Infertile and Dies” (#山东一女子因不孕遭婆家虐待致死#) has been trending for days, along with other similar hashtags (#女子因不孕被夫家虐待致死案重审#, #山东女子因不孕被虐待致死#).
A statement issued by Yucheng People’s Court said the court gave the defendants lighter punishment because they were truthful about their crimes and, in advance, paid a voluntary compensation of 50,000 yuan ($7630). The verdict will now be withdrawn.
In an interview with Southcn.com, Fang’s cousin stated the family had contacted police before when Fang’s in-laws would not allow the family to see her. The second time they contacted the police was after Fang had died.
Sources close to the family state that Fang’s mother had been diagnosed with a mental condition, with Fang allegedly also showing signs of mental disability, although this has not been verified by official sources. There are also sources claiming that the father-in-law, Zhang Jilin, was a heavy drinker who would get aggressive when drunk.
On social media, many people are outraged. “I just don’t understand it!”, one person writes: “It’s just because of societal pressure that this case is now going on retrial. But this is not justice!”
Public anger about the case grew louder due to another case trending at the same time, in which a Shenzhen mother who beat her 12-year-old daughter to death received a ten-year prison sentence (#母亲失手打死12岁女儿获刑十年#).
“This is unimaginable,” one Weibo user wrote: “Isn’t the idea of sentencing someone to actually punish them?!”
“This pains me so much, is this the actual society we’re living in?”
Besides the anger over China’s criminal justice system when it comes to domestic violence, there are also those who express disgust over the fact that the Zhang family apparently arranged a marriage for the sole purpose of producing offspring. “Are we still living in the Qing Dynasty?”
Many of the comments online are similar to those that flooded social media after the death of Lamu: “Is this how the law protects women?!”
We will report more on this story after November 27.
By Manya Koetse
Follow @WhatsOnWeibo
Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.
©2020 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.
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